OSCE supports voter information and secure balloting projects for Georgian parliamentary elections

TBILISI, 16 March 2004 - The OSCE participating States today made a total of 170,000 euros available to improve voter information and meet procurement expenses for Georgia's parliamentary elections, scheduled for 28 March.

Under two agreements signed in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi today, the amount will fund part of the Central Election Committee's (CEC) Voter Information Campaign and Voter Marking activities. The first activity will support the CEC to raise public awareness and the second protect the integrity of the elections through voter marking, which will prevent multiple voting.

The agreements were signed by the CEC Chairperson, Zurab Chiaberashvili, and the Head of the OSCE Mission to Georgia, Ambassador Roy Reeve.

"We are very grateful for the speedy and successful assistance by the OSCE for both presidential and now parliamentary Elections," Chiaberashvili said at the signing ceremony. "In future, we hope the OSCE will also help carry forward sound reforms of the election administration, as laid out in our recent concept paper."

At the last OSCE Ministerial Council in Maastricht on 1 and 2 December, the 55 OSCE participating States pledged to support Georgia in conducting this year's democratic presidential and parliamentary elections.

Through the OSCE Georgia Elections Assistance Programme (GEAP), which was set up to administer these special funds, some 2 million euros went towards the presidential election on 4 January. Another 2 million euros are being used on support of the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

"These agreements mark the culmination of this phase of short-term assistance provided through the OSCE. We now look forward to working closely with the CEC on sustainable long-term reforms," Ambassador Reeve said.

While today's agreements cover the last major projects to be signed between the OSCE and the CEC in support for parliamentary elections, projects funded through the Programme will continue in the areas of capacity-building for the election administration, domestic observation and voter education outreach.